This project was made possible in part due to a generous grant by the Life Technologies Foundation.

Thank you Mann Lake Ltd!

We are very appreciative of the generous donation of equipment and supplies to the Honeybee and World Health traveling education program made by this leading beekeeping and candlemaking supply company.

Thank you to Beesource, a wonderful online beekeeping community and informational resource.

Beesource was kind enough to arrange the provision of a queen bee for our educational beeyard.

Thanks Koehnen & Sons!

We greatly appreciate your working with Beesource to donate a queen bee to our program.

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Boojum Institute for Experiential Education

Serving over 70,000 people since 1975, the Boojum Institute for Experiential Education is a 501(C)3 nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to helping young people from all backgrounds learn more about nature, the environment and themselves.

The distinctive coloration of honeybees is an adaptation. The yellow and black stripes on a bees body helps make bees harder for predators to see. It is a camouflage when they are gathering nectar and pollen from flowers.

Bee stingers are also an adaptation. It is actually an organ in their body called an ovipositor. The ovipositor is used by insects to lay their eggs precisely where they want them. Honeybees adapted this organ to be sharp enough to penetrate an attacker’s flesh and venom sacs were developed to make the sting very powerful. This is another defensive adaptation.

The hair on a honeybee’s body is another adaptation. As a bee flies, the incredibly fast beating of their wings generates static electricity. The static builds up in their fur. When a bee lands on a flower to drink nectar, the flower’s fine, dust-like pollen cling’s to the bee’s fur due to the static charge. The bee can then use their feet to “comb” themselves, gathering the pollen and storing it on the pollen baskets on their back legs.